Conservative Filmmaker’s Attempt To Prove Voter Fraud In Colorado Blows Up In His Face

Conservative activist and professional troublemaker James O’Keefe released another one of his ‘blockbuster’ stings Wednesday that supposedly showed voter fraud in action in Colorado. The convicted criminal took his cameras to Colorado earlier this month in an attempt to expose Democrats taking part in voter fraud to assist Democratic candidates in the close races for Senate and Governor. While in O’Keefe’s mind, and surely hard-core right-wingers’, he completely exposed voter fraud in action, the reality of the situation is he didn’t document one actual instance of voter fraud being committed.

In typical O’Keefe fashion, the self-proclaimed muckraker donned disguises and pretended to be a liberal activist while speaking with volunteers at liberal non-profit organizations who were working on voter registration and mobilization drives. In a few instances that he caught on video, he was able to convince some of these other activists that utilizing unused mailed ballots to vote for Democrats was a good idea. Colorado is one of three states that has an all mail-in voting system. O’Keefe presented various scenarios to the activists in the video where he’d be able to get a hold of unused ballots. He was able to get some of them to agree that it was a good idea.

In the end, this is really just a bunch of nothing. All O’Keefe was able to do was present strawman scenarios to a few people and get them to agree that they could potentially work. In the video, we see him state that he has a bunch of fraternity brothers that have moved out but they will receive their ballots because they didn’t change their addresses. He also pushed forward the idea of rummaging in the trash in historically low-turnout areas to find thrown out ballots to use and turn in. Overall, he ran with the long-held conservative belief that widespread voter fraud is unbelievably easy, especially with mailed ballots. In this case, he was able to videotape a few people agreeing with his stupid plans, though he didn’t film anyone taking part in anything illegal.

On Monday, Mother Jones ran a preemptive article which hamstrung O’Keefe’s upcoming ‘bombshell.’ In the piece, it was revealed that a number of Democratic staffers caught O’Keefe trying to catch them in a sting when he suggested running a voter fraud scheme to them. O’Keefe and his assistants ran the same scheme that you see in the video, bringing up ballots found in the trash or for college students who have moved off campus. However, O’Keefe and his helpers were turned away from the offices. O’Keefe was also caught trying to disguise himself and go back to the same office. O’Keefe was also turned away from a non-profit organization after he tried to prove that the organization was directly collaborating with Sen. Mark Udall’s campaign.

The repeated questions about submitting other people’s ballots led Democratic staffers to suspect they were being targeted. Later, the staffers viewed photos of O’Keefe—including one taken in Colorado showing O’Keefe sans mustache and sporting a Udall campaign sticker and a Women for Udall button—and they concluded that O’Keefe and the college professor were the same person. They also said the image O’Keefe tweeted of himself with a mustache matched the man who visited the Boulder office on Friday.

O’Keefe and two male colleagues also targeted a progressive nonprofit named New Era Colorado, according to New Era executive director Steve Fenberg. On Saturday, Fenberg says, O’Keefe and his friends contacted New Era’s Fort Collins office to set up an in-person meeting and identified themselves as activists affiliated with Rocky Mountain Vote Pride. The three men arrived carrying Udall campaign literature, Fenberg notes, but a New Era organizer met them outside the office’s front door and refused to let them enter with the Udall materials. Outside groups such as New Era cannot coordinate with political campaigns, and Fenberg says he believes O’Keefe and his collaborators “were trying to establish evidence we were working together.”

When New Era’s staffers began taking pictures of O’Keefe (including the photo embedded at left), Fenberg says, O’Keefe and a colleague went to their car and returned with a large video camera and a microphone. “If you want to take photos of us, we’ll take photos of you,” O’Keefe said, according to Fenberg, and the New Era staffers closed the door while O’Keefe and his friend tried to push it open and stick their microphone inside. Fenberg says New Era filed a police report about the incident.

Mother Jones Editor David Corn needled O’Keefe on Monday when the MJ piece ran and again on Wednesday when O’Keefe’s video was published. O’Keefe had originally responded to Corn on Monday and claimed that Corn would end up with “egg all over [his] undercover-Polk-award winning face” after the video was released. On Wednesday, Corn was relentless with the Twitter attack on O’Keefe.

.@JamesOKeefeIII In your video, the only people pushing voter fraud are you & your colleagues. Did you not find 1 instance of real fraud?

Game. Set. Match. I guess we should give him a little credit. At least this time, he didn’t don an Osama Bin Laden mask while attempting to prove Islamic terrorists were crossing the Rio Grande and infiltrating America.

Justin Baragona is the Managing Editor at Politicus Sports as well as Senior Editor at PoliticusUSA. He was a political writer for 411Mania.com before joining PoliticusUSA. Politically, Justin considers himself a liberal but also a realist and pragmatist. Currently, Justin lives in St. Louis, MO and is married. Besides writing, he also runs his own business after spending a number of years in the corporate world. You can follow Justin on Twitter either with his personal handle (@justinbaragona) or the Sports site’s (@PoliticusSports).

what he proved, again, is how incredibly bad at math Republicans seem to be… even if he or someone could collect some number of mail in ballots how many is enough to actually swing an election? that’s the paranoia the right seems hellbent on ‘proving’… that elections of people they don’t like was because of some perceived ‘voter fraud’…

What an absolutely creepy guy. Every time I see his picture on a site I feel repulsed. There is something seriously wrong with him. I think he is delusional. He thinks someday, someday, someday he is going to get it right and he will be hailed as a hero to the right. He has certainly caused some serious damage in the past – I think that is what spurs him on. Yukky.

I think that O’Keefe and Coulter would make a most lovely couple since they are so much alike: they are similar in looks, famous for being so offensive and evil for the Republican cause and make money by creating false scenarios. I wonder how the world could be a better place if these two had regular jobs that actually produced something and benefited mankind?

Part of it is the fact that the self-righteous teabaggers are so convinced they’re right that they can’t believe people might disagree with them. They exist inside a self-reinforcing bubble where they never hear opposing viewpoints, so anytime they lose voter fraud just has to be the reason.

OTOH, I’m convinced the establishment GOPers know perfectly well that the whole ‘voter fraud’ meme is itself a fraud: a made-up cover story for why they’re working day and night to steal voters’ rights. They know that low turnouts generally favor them.

In an undercover police sting, expressing the desire to commit the felony is all it takes to be arrested. A prostitute who agrees to have sex with a client can be arrested and charged. An online sexual predator can be arrested and charged for expressing the desire without ever having actually committed the crime. Extending this same logic into this scenario means the Dems were guilty of voter fraud whether or not they actually followed through.

oh come on, they did not just say it was feasible (which would be unethical enough without adding that it is wrong!), they flat out said his plan was a good idea! I don’t think this video proves anything about voter fraud, but at the same time, there is no justification for the statements these people made.

Ahh knowing that the asshole lies with his editing how do you come to the conclusion that they said it was a good idea? And when David Corn confronted the asshole he couldn’t answer his questions. Just like Shirley Sherrod, Sen Landrieu and when the asshole tried to rape a CNN reporter on a boat its all fraud on his part and your dumbass falls for it.

Please explain to us dumbass how same day registration robs you of your right to vote?
Colorado has a sound election system, but we can improve our system substantially so it better serves voters’ needs, takes advantage of our technology, and saves tax dollars.

Actually, in a police sting, there has to be an overt act in furtherance of the crime. The Police cannot arrest someone for just talking with a prostitute about sex. There has to be the act (the exchange of money) in order for them to be arrested and charged. The actual act (exchange of money) is what is illegal, not just talking about it.

Even in conspiracy charges, you cannot charge someone for just talking. There has to be an overt act in furtherance of the crime for them to be charged.

Same with a online child porn sting. You don’t see them knocking down the people’s doors at their computers. You have them setting up a scenario where they come to the person for the sting.

And even then you have to be careful about what you say. Otherwise, it’s entrapment. You cannot be the one to broach the subject of the crime. What James O’Keefe did would be thrown out in any court as entrapment.

I’m not a violent person, hell I will put a spider outside instead of killing him. BUT!!! I would hold no compunctions whatsoever in pummeling that little prick into a grease spot. Then when he is fully healed and vertical I would do it again!!

He was convicted in 2010 and was sentenced to 3 years probation. He was charged with entering federal property under false pretenses, a misdemeanor. The charge carries a maximum term of six months in prison and a $5,000 fine. Now that is white privilege.

Now djchefron you know that that the sage of Fox News Billo the Clown has denied with his “facts” that there is no such thing as “white privilege”…but ASIAN privilege is another story…IN BILLO”S HEAD!….

May I point out that, as far as I can tell, O’Keefe tried repeatedly and utterly failed to get anyone actually associated with a Democratic campaign to go along with his criminal scheme. and then interviewed an unknown number of unknown people with no known affiliation with the campaigns, until he found a couple who didn’t know the law well enough to understand that what he was suggesting was illegal. I repeat- the actual people who had a connection to the Democrats utterly rejected his illegal scheme.